KOZUKA

MYTHOLOGICAL BEASTS

MEI: JOI with KAO

DATE: c. 1701-1761

DESCRIPTION:

Outstanding suaka copper kozuka done in shishiaibori. The kozuka depicts four creatures known to Japanese mythology namely Dragon, Minogame, Kirin, and Phoenix. The carvings are exquisite.

Sugiura Joi was one of the Nara Sansaku or three great masters along with Tsuchiya Yasuchika and Nara Toshinaga. Joi was his Nyudo go after he entered the priesthood, prior to that he signed Nagaharu.

This kozuka came out of a very old collection and the prior owner told me the papers were in the box of papers he sent. However, after going through it several times, there are no papers that I can find. He confirmed they were the older kicho or green papers.

While doing research on this kozuka, I found there to be discrepancies even between the ones in the reference materials, especially with the Kao. Every one of them looked different. ???

Joi was known for his skill in shishiaibori carving technique which is what is seen on this kozuka.

NFS